It’s a matter of what ammunition, not ammunition in general. Ukraine uses a quarter of a million artillery shells a month. The US doesn’t have facilities to build them that fast because we would never need to use that many. We would absolutely own the sky over both the battlefield and Russia itself, reducing the utility of artillery and increasing it’s effectiveness. The benefits of combined arms and force multiplication can’t be overstated.
We could very quickly build out capacity to produce the shells Ukraine needs, but it’s a problem of economics. Those facilities are expensive, and wouldn’t be required long enough to provide suppliers a return on investment. We would have to pay a massive premium on those shells and, this far, there hasn’t been the will to do that.
It’s a matter of what ammunition, not ammunition in general. Ukraine uses a quarter of a million artillery shells a month. The US doesn’t have facilities to build them that fast because we would never need to use that many. We would absolutely own the sky over both the battlefield and Russia itself, reducing the utility of artillery and increasing it’s effectiveness. The benefits of combined arms and force multiplication can’t be overstated.
We could very quickly build out capacity to produce the shells Ukraine needs, but it’s a problem of economics. Those facilities are expensive, and wouldn’t be required long enough to provide suppliers a return on investment. We would have to pay a massive premium on those shells and, this far, there hasn’t been the will to do that.